Henry Bakemeyer

Henry Bakemeyer has over 37 years experience working in both custom and captive die casting environments and has a wide range of field experience from die cast machine operator to part-owner of a start-up die casting operation. Assignments have included design of casting and secondary tooling; solving tooling and process related problems; and complete managing of die cast projects from product start-ups to plant start-ups. He has designed and supervised the construction of hundreds, aluminum and zinc molds in his career. Henry has organized and conducted in plant training programs from print reading to statistical process control, and die casting technology.  Add to this his extensive experience in computer analysis of die cast die metal and heat flow.

Henry is an Electrical Engineering graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and has NADCA certification as a Die Casting Technician, Process Engineer and Tooling Engineer.  He has served as a NADCA instructor for 13 years in a range of education courses including, Designing Casting Dies, Product Design, Die Materials Metallurgy, Gating, Heat Flow, Dimensional Repeatability and SMED.

He is author of the NADCA Operator Training Program and has served as a member of the NADCA Industry Product Standards, Safety and Education committees. He is currently Chairman of NADCA-Wisconsin Chapter 12.

Courses Henry teaches:
Introduction to Die Casting, Operating the Die Casting Machine, Die Casting Machine Safety, Dimensional Repeatability, Die Material Metallurgy & Extending Die Life, Engineering Die Casting Dies, Product Design, PQ2, Train the Trainer and Operator Training.

Paul Cnossen

Mr. Cnossen has been employed at Prince Machine since 1984. In this time he has held many different positions including Electronics Technician, Machine Builder, Field Service Technician, Machine Runoff, Inside Sales and Service, and presently as a Technical Education Instructor. He has been involved with technical education in one form or another since 1990 teaching mechanics, hydraulics, controls and machine operations.

He holds an associate’s degree in Applied Arts and Sciences.

Courses Paul teaches:
Machine Maintenance: Mechanics, Process Control, Machine Maintenance: Hydraulics and Machine Maintenance: Electricity.

Tim Cowell

Tim is the president of Cowell Chemical Inc., a consulting and lubricant manufacturing company located in Peru, IN.

Before starting this company in 2005, Cowell was the technical director for G.W. Smith & Sons for six years, where he was responsible for new product development, working with customers on special projects and providing technical support to the sales engineers. He also worked for Chrysler Corporation, in Kokomo, IN, for 12 years as a chemical/metallurgical engineer.

Cowell earned a BS degree in chemistry from Cedarville University. He has authored several articles on paint adhesion problems and is currently an instructor for several NADCA courses.

Edmund A. Herman, PE

Mr. Herman holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering-Operations Research from the University of Michigan. He is a Professional Engineer registered in Michigan. He has 34 years experience in industry (General Motors) and five years as the Education Director for the Society of Die Casting Engineers (now NADCA). His industrial experience includes ten years as a die and process engineer for a die casting facility having full responsibility for getting the die casting dies and all other tooling designed, built and running for new die cast products; creation of physical standards for die casting dies and new die casting process developments such as the introduction of thermal analysis into the normal die design process. These responsibilities include equipment selection, plant layout, process control and the instruction of the operation and maintenance people involved with those products. He has 24 years with General Motors in new process development in the areas of molding sheet molding compounds and draw die developments for sheet metal stamping dies. Instrumental in the shift from physical plaster developments to total CAD design of sheet metal draw die developments within General Motors. He has authored several textbooks and magazine articles for NADCA and has instructed NADCA courses since 1972. He has taught continuing education courses on die casting, stamping and injection molding through Oakland and Wayne State Universities. He helped the Australian Government Fellowship to set up the Australian Advanced Certificate program on Die Casting, including writing the textbooks, which is being run by their Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system.

Courses Ed teaches: Engineering Die Casting Dies, Gating Design, Process Control and Die Casting Defects.

Scott Kirkman

Mr. Kirkman brings to the die casting industry 14 years experience working with Brillcast Inc., General Motors, Madison-Kipp, Nicollet Process Engineering and Strattec Security Corporation. Mr. Kirkman completed his B.S. degree in Engineering at GMI Engineering & Management Institute, Flint, MI, and is currently finishing his master’s degree in Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His area of expertise is the implementation of new technologies and methods in the die casting industry, particularly process monitoring technologies and statistically based process analysis and improvement. His future interests include the development of improved process planning tools to provide more deterministic methods for managing the die cast product cradle-to-grave loop.

Courses Scott teaches: Gating Design, Die Cast Problem Solving, Cost Estimating and Die Casting Lubricants & Coolants.

Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer has over 16 years experience in the metal casting industry. Dan started early in the casting industry breaking off gates and later machining and welding non-ferrous sand castings. He then moved into the die casting industry where he has gained experience with the die casting process, manufacturing engineering, die design, and project engineering at a wide variety of companies. While working in the casting industry Dan developed many casting product designs, often converting part designs from other manufacturing processes. Dan also spent a short amount of time as a product design engineer for audio visual mounting systems.

Dan has a Bachelor's Degree in Manufacturing Technology and Management from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Manufacturing Technology from Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

Courses Dan teaches: Product Design
 

David V. Neff

Mr. Neff holds a BS, MS, and a Ph.D in Metallurgy from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He is a member of NADCA, AFS, TMS and ASM. Neff has authored more than 60 papers in metalcasting technical/trade publications and forums in United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, UK, and Italy. He has 30 years experience in nonferrous and ferrous metal casting and supplier industries. Neff's major expertise is in molten metal treatment, product applications, technical service, sales and marketing of metalcasting product technology to the aluminum secondary, die casting, foundry, and mill products industries. Neff is currently employed as the Manager-Molten Metal Treatment for Metaullics Systems Division of Pyrotek, Inc. He has worldwide sales/marketing/technical service responsibility for filtration, degassing product technology.

Courses Dave teaches: Metal Management and Metallurgy of Die Casting Alloys.

Bill Walkington

Mr. Walkington is the president of Walkington Engineering Inc., a private consulting practice serving the die casting industry for more than 10 years. His consulting experience includes: analysis of die casting defects and process problems; computer analysis of metal flow and thermal systems, designing specialized training programs; planning for plant expansion; turnkey tooling projects, including die design, die build and sampling; product engineering assistance to develop a well engineered product that will be a good casting, and other projects. He has developed teams that include other qualified specialists for projects as needed.

His customers have included: General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Corp., Chrysler Corp., Mercury Marine, Briggs and Stratton Corp., Noranda, and numerous others.

His previous experience includes Engineering Manager for Madison-Kipp and Chief Engineer at another die casting company. His experience at these companies included process engineering, manufacturing engineering, plant engineering, and manager of engineering. His typical project was to set up an automation program on 20 aluminum die casting machines; this program resulted in one operator for every three 600 ton aluminum die casting machines.

Mr. Walkington holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in Electrical Engineering and B.S. from the University of Idaho in Agricultural Engineering. He is also a Registered Engineer, State of Wisconsin.

His affiliations include NADCA, where he is a member of the National Board of Governors. He is also the Vice Chairman of the R & D Committee, Chairman of the Computer Modeling Task Force, NADCA Wisconsin Chapter 12 Board of Directors and past chapter chairman.

He is the author of several NADCA textbooks on die casting defects and troubleshooting. He developed an education course on defects and PQ2 . He also developed a computer program for PQ2 that is still in general use.

Courses Bill teaches:
Process Control, PQ2, Die Casting Defects, and Gating Design.

Mike Ward

Mr. Ward holds a B.S.M.E. from Drexel University and an M.B.A. from Wayne State University.

His professional experience includes: Ward & Associates–Consultant to Manufacturing, which provides engineered solutions to manufacturing operations. Most of the work is in the die casting industry-die cast engineering design, process development, facility planning, and financial analysis.

Prior to his employment at Ward & Associates, he worked at Dynacast as the Aluminum Manager and Manufacturing Engineering Manager. He built the Elgin aluminum die cast facility from scratch by developing and implementing a capital plan of $3.1 million; purchasing the equipment and machinery; hiring key engineers and supervisors; engineering the die and the process; having $1.1 million of tooling built; establishing the standard operating procedures, the control plan, and the preventative maintenance plan; launching the plant and was responsible for the aluminum P&L statement. He achieved an annual turnover rate of $8 million in 18 months. He later served as an internal consultant to Dynacast plants in North America and Europe working with zinc, aluminum, and magnesium. He also worked at Lunt Manufacturing as an Engineering Manager. He was responsible for design, construction, and process development of magnesium die cast dies. He also worked at Woodstock Die Cast as an Engineering Manager. He was responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of zinc and aluminum casting dies and secondary tooling along with process development.

Courses Mike teaches: Gating Design, Die Cooling Systems Engineering, Process Control and Die Casting Defects.

Ed Wrench

Mr. Wrench is currently employed by Auto Cast Inc., Grandville, Mich. He started at Auto Cast as a die cast machine operator, and was named a maintenance position in 1990, and became a Process Engineer in 1993.

His responsibilities include working directly with the maintenance supervisor to ensure all equipment is maintained properly; purchasing and designing of new equipment; machine installations and startups; electrical control design systems and PLC Programming of all plant equipment; developing and establishing die casting process procedures and parameters for zinc and aluminum die casting machines and tools; training of all plant personnel in areas such as machine maintenance, shot monitoring equipment and machine setup; and working directly with product design department in new tool design and improving existing tools and their process parameters.

He is experienced in electrical control system troubleshooting and design, hydraulic control systems troubleshooting and design, machine repair and diagnosing of die cast machines, PLC programming and installations, die casting skills (gating, thermal, process engineering, die design), shot monitoring equipment installations and training.

He is a NADCA Certified Die Casting Technician and a NADCA Master of Die Casting Maintenance.

He attended Ferris State University and Grand Rapids Community College where he studied Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Hydraulics.

Courses Ed teaches:
Machine Maintenance: Hydraulics, Machine Maintenance: Mechanics, Machine Maintenance: Electricity, Gating Design and Process Control.